NEW DELHI: It has been all work and no play for Narendra Modi ever since he was sworn in as India's prime minister on May 26. But he could soon be headed to Rio for some football fun.

Work it shall still be. The PM has been invited by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to watch the finals of the ongoing football World Cup at the Estadio Maracana in Rio de Janeiro on July 13, official sources said.

If Modi attends the finals, he will be in the company of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Jacob Zuma as the leaders converge in the Latin American nation for the 2014 BRICS Summit, to be held between July 15 and 17 in the seaside city of Fortaleza. BRICS is an association of five emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs told ET that the PM has been formally invited by the Brazilian president to attend the World Cup finals along with the other leaders. India hasn't yet confirmed whether Modi is reaching early to watch the finals.

The BRICS summit, originally scheduled for March this year, has reportedly been postponed at China's request so that President Xi, a football buff, could catch up some World Cup action.

Last week, Modi released commemorative postage stamps on the World Cup and wished the event becomes a "bridge for connecting nations".

All BRICS countries other than India have played in the World Cup. In fact, three BRICS nations are hosting successive World Cups - South Africa in 2010, Brazil this time and Russia in 2018.

But, India, where cricket is the more popular game, ranks 154 on the FIFA list. India had qualified for the tournament once, in 1950, when Brazil was the host. But the football federation did not send a team. Football, therefore, has never been a platform to India for global diplomacy while other countries have made much use of worldwide football enthusiasm for international relations.

Brazil will host more than 20 world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Emir of Qatar, Prince Albert of Monaco and UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon, during the month-long tournament.

Thirty-two teams are playing in the tournament which the Latin American country has won five times. Brazil is hoping that the World Cup will help turn around its economy, despite protests from those who think that the huge spending on organising the tournament is a waste of national resources.

The Fortaleza summit will be the Indian Prime Minister's first multilateral summit. Brazil will also be Modi's third destination abroad as PM. After returning from Bhutan on Monday, he will head to Japan on July 3-4. It will be an important opportunity for the PM to connect with the top leader of China. The Chinese foreign minister was in Delhi last week to prepare for this big meeting.

Brazil is India's most important partner in South America and ties have witnessed an upswing in recent years. It is expected that Russia will make proposals for investment in India when Modi meets Putin. The South African President will give the PM an opportunity to engage with Africa's richest nation and an old partner of India.